(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording card, and a charge making/paying system employing the same. More particularly, it relates to a card in which a magnetic stripe bearing specified information is secured to a predetermined place on a postcard or a blank form equal in size thereto, and a charging/paying system which employs the card.
(b) Statement of Related Art
As so-called magnetic cards in each of which a magnetic memory area is provided on a card of plastics or paper, there are banking cards, various credit cards, telephone cards, etc., and there have been proposed, e.g., a disposable magnetic-card coupon disclosed in the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 175192/1985, and an information recording card and a commutation ticket disclosed in the official gazettes of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 29191/1982 and 29192/1982. However, it has not been proposed yet to utilize such a magnetic card for a charge making/paying system. When a public office, a bank, a stock company or any other entity (hereinbelow, termed "payee") makes a specified charge to a customer and receives the charge, it is sometimes the case that the payee sends the customer a postcard on which various items of data on payment information, such as the class of the charge, the charged amount of money, the due date, and a user code, are printed. The customer pays through the automatic transfer by which the charged amount of money is automatically transferred from a bank account designated by the customer beforehand, to the payee's bank account, or he/she pays to the payee through a predetermined bank or directly. Especially in a case where, in paying public utilities charges such as gas charges, electric charges, telephone charges, water charges and drainage charges or paying taxes such as the fixed property tax, the customer pays to companies and public officies including a taxation office, which are payees, through predetermined banks or directly. It is the present situation that involves processes to be executed at the windows of the companies etc. that include the troublesome operations of re-inputting data such as the classes of the charges, the paid amounts of money and the user code.